Manila, Interpol collar ‘sextortion’ ring

BLACKMAIL:At least 58 suspects have been apprehended in a sex scheme that had victimized hundreds of people worldwide, including Australia, the US and Britain

AP, MANILA

Senior Superintendent Gilbert Sosa of the Philippine National Police’s Anti-Cybercrime Group, left, reaches for the microphone from Scotland Yard’s Gary Cunningham, right, as William Wallrapp of the US embassy looks on during a press briefing yesterday at the police headquarters in Camp Crame, Metro Manila.

Photo: EPA

Philippine police, backed by Interpol, have arrested dozens of suspected members of an online extortion syndicate who duped hundreds of victims worldwide into exposing themselves in front of webcams or engaging in lewd chats, including a Scottish teenager who committed suicide after being blackmailed, officials said yesterday.

At least 58 Filipino suspects in the capital, Manila, and three other regions were arrested this week after investigators from Interpol, the US Department of Homeland Security and police from three other countries traced online chats from some of the victims’ computers, Philippine National Police Chief Alan Purisima said.

More than 260 desktop and laptop computers, mobile phones, pornographic materials and other pieces of evidence were seized during the raids by 15 police teams, he told a news conference in Manila.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” Senior Superintendent Gilbert Sosa, director of the Philippine police’s Anti-Cybercrime Group, said of the arrests on Wednesday and Thursday, one of the largest hauls by the local police in recent years.

Many more suspects and extortion gangs remain at large and will be pursued, he said.

Interpol said that one Filipino syndicate, based in Naga city, southeast of Manila, operated with more than 100 members. Hong Kong police also helped identify another “sextortion” syndicate based in Bulacan province, north of Manila, which targeted victims in Hong Kong, Britain, Australia, the US and South Korea.

Easy access to the Internet, a relatively lower risk of arrest and big financial gains have caused such crimes to flourish in recent years in countries such as the Philippines.

The syndicates prey on mostly male victims by employing women with fake Facebook accounts who strike up online chats with them. The victims are duped into engaging in lewd talk, exposing themselves before a webcam or performing a sexual act that are recorded and used to blackmail them, Philippine police said.

Interpol said it was difficult to estimate numbers, but said there could be “hundreds of thousands” of such victims across the world targeted by online extortion groups. They usually ask for US$500 from a victim, but there have been demands of up to US$15,000, Interpol said.

“The scale of these `sextortion’ networks is massive and run with just one goal in mind, to make money regardless of the terrible emotional damage they inflict on their victims,” said Sanjay Virmani, director of Interpol’s Digital Crime Center.

Hong Kong police Inspector Louis Kwan Chung-yin (關頌賢) said more than 470 people from Hong Kong were victimized last year and about 160 so far this year. A US embassy official said US military personnel were among the victims in the US.

Three of the arrested Filipino suspects were believed to have victimized Daniel Perry, a 17-year-old mechanic, who took his own life by jumping off a bridge in Scotland in July last year after being blackmailed, Sosa said.

The BBC has reported that he took his own life after being warned that his video conversations would be circulated to his friends and family if he did not pay up.

Gary Cunningham, a police officer from Scotland, said criminal complaints would be filed against the three Filipinos if there was enough evidence to connect them to the blackmail.

“You cannot imagine the impact this has had for Daniel Perry’s family,” Cunningham said. “They’re still trying to cope with the circumstances.”

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